By Dan Ambrose: Junior middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo (22-2, 18 KO’s) has had a nice career but he’s been exposed when he’s stepped up a level. On Saturday, it looks like Angulo is going to get exposed again when he faces Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO’s) in a fight for the interim WBA World light middleweight title at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California, USA.
It’s too bad because Angulo was just now starting to get his career back in order after getting wiped out by James Kirkland in 2011 Angulo has won his last two fights since then, albeit against weak opposition. As far as his fight with Lara goes, Golden Boy Promotions has done Angulo no favors in this one because this is not the type of opponent that Angulo can succeed against.
Lara is the type that Angulo fails miserably against, and he might be lucky if he can one round on Saturday night.
This fight is an important one for Angulo and Lara because the winner of the fight will put themselves in position to get a fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at some point in the future if Canelo chooses to keep the WBA title.
It’s still unclear whether Canelo will choose to keep his WBA strap because the World Boxing Council is already telling him that he has to make a decision about whether to keep his WBC belt or the WBA title. I’m sure the Angulo-Lara winner is hoping that Canelo keeps his WBA title because that way they can get a crack at him at some point.
I think Angulo is one that Golden Boy would like to put in with Canelo because he’s flat footed like Canelo and he won’t use much movement. Lara is a different story. If he comes out on top in this fight, I can see him being ignored forever and eventually Canelo vacating the WBA title rather than facing him.
Angulo is in a real tough spot on Saturday night. He’s just too slow to compete with Lara and he’s going to have a real problem trying to land his shots unless Lara stands there in front of him for 12 rounds, and he’s not going to do that.
He’s going to give Angulo a boxing lesson just as Floyd Mayweather Jr. would if he were to ever fight him, and he obviously won’t. Angulo is too slow and limited to beat Lara and I think he might end up getting stopped from an accumulation of blows from Lara.
Comments are closed.